BASEL, Switzerland—Roche has entered into an exclusive
worldwide license agreement with Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the research,
development and
commercialization of Inovio's highly optimized, multi-antigen
DNA immunotherapies for prostate cancer and hepatitis B.

Per the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Inovio $10
million up front, and will also provide preclinical research and
development
support. Inovio will be eligible for near-term regulatory milestone payments as
well as development and commercialization milestones, for a
potential total of
up to $412.5 million. Inovio could receive additional development milestone
payments if Roche decides to pursue INO-5150 or INO-
1800, the licensed
compounds, in additional indications. Inovio will also receive up to
double-digit tiered royalties on sales of products resulting
form this
agreement. The companies will collaborate to further develop the licensed
compounds. Roche has also gained an option to license additional
vaccine
opportunities related to a collaborative research program in oncology.

"This partnership
represents an important milestone in
Inovio's growth and maturing product portfolio. Roche brings to our
immunotherapy candidates its leadership
position and track record for
developing and marketing innovative first-in-class therapies," Dr. J. Joseph
Kim, president and CEO at Inovio, commented
in a statement. "Collaborating with
the world's preeminent oncology development partner allows us to rapidly
advance two of our promising near-
clinical stage immunotherapy products from
our product pipeline as we continue development of our Phase II lead product,
VGX-3100, for treatment of
HPV-related cancers and dysplasia."

Roche's license includes INO-5150 and INO-1800, DNA-based
vaccines that are both in preclinical development, as well as the use of
CELLECTRA, Inovio's electroporation technology for the delivery of vaccines.
INO-5150 is a dual-antigen synthetic DNA vaccine that targets prostate-specific
membrane antigen and prostate-specific antigen to treat prostate
cancer.
INO-1800, geared toward the treatment of hepatitis B, has demonstrated
preclinical potential to treat hepatitis B infection. In addition to
demonstrating a killing function, the vaccine-specific T-cells also showed the
ability to migrate to the liver and remain there, clearing target cells.
In
preclinical work, both compounds have demonstrated robust T-cell responses in
animal models.

"At
Roche we are always interested in finding first-in-class
and best-in-class therapies that may become the next generation treatments for
patients with
different types of cancer. INO-5150 will allow promising
combination opportunities with the Roche portfolio, particularly with our
emerging cancer
immunotherapy molecules," Hy Levitsky, head of Cancer
Immunology Experimental Medicine at Roche, said in a press release regarding
the license
agreement.

"We are very excited to have this potentially very important
and novel mechanism of action
as part of our portfolio as we seek to address
the significant unmet medical need in chronic hepatitis B infection," said
Janet Hammond, head of
Infectious Diseases Discovery & Translational Area
at Roche.